Bundeschampion Forever Valentine NRW Has a New Rider

Dressage

Germany

Bundeschampion Forever Valentine has a new rider. Thomas Schulze has lost the ride on the Belgian owned mare to Beatrice Hoffrogge.

Forever Valentine is an 9-year old Westfalian mare by Franziskus out of Lilou (by Laurentio x De Niro).

The Bicycle

She is bred by the breeders' group ESG Heinrichmann-Pötter-Schulze and is born at the yard of Georgia Schulze-Lefert's parents.

As a foal she was nicknamed "Das Fahrrad" (the bicycle). The mare certainly wheeled herself to most prestigious title a young horse can win in Germany.

Thomas Schulze

Under German professional Thomas Schulze the mare competed at three Bundeschampionate in Warendorf.

She was 14th in the 5-year old dressage horse finals at the 2020 Bundeschampionate, she won gold in the 6-year old dressage horse finals at the 2021 Bundeschampionate and was 10th in the 7-year old Finals at the 2022 Bundeschampionate.

Three times she tried for the German team for the World Young Horse Championships. She was selected in 2020 but the event was cancelled due to the corona pandemic. She also tried in 2021 and 2022 but did not make the final cut even though she got long-listed.

Beatrice Hoffrogge

At the end of December 2023 owner Caroline van Zele decided it was time for the mare to move to a new rider and instead of choosing a Belgian one, she first went to Holland and then back to Germany.

"It's not that I don't want to co-operate with a rider from Belgium, but I just got the opportunity to work with Beatrice," Van Zele told Eurodressage.

Forever Valentine NRW went to Femke de Laat for a period of training before she was brought to Hoffrogge.

The pair made its show debut today at the local show in Datteln in the S*-level class in which they finished second with 70.000%.